(If thy revenges hunger for that food, Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead: Which nature loathes,) take thou the destin'd tenth; Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea: And by the hazard of the spotted, die, Let die the spotted. 1 Sen. All have not offended: Or any token of thine honour else, That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress, And not as our confusion, all thy powers Shall make their harbour in our town, till we Have seal'd thy full desire. Alcib. And on his gravestone, this insculpture; which With wax I brought away, whose soft impression Interprets for my poor ignorance. Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft: Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! Here lie I, Timon : who alive, all living men did hate: Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait. These well express in thee thy latter spirits : Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'ast our brains' flow," and those our droplets which Then there's my glove; THE play of Timon is a domestic tragedy, and there Descend, and open your uncharged ports; Both. 5 "Tis most nobly spoken. Alcib. Descend, and keep your words. 1 i. e. not regular, not equitable. 2 Jovis incunabula Crete. Ovid Metam. viii. 99. 3 i. e. Unattacked gates. 4 i. e. to reconcile them to it. The general sense of this word in Shakspeare. Thus in Cymbeline:- I was glad I did atone my countryman and you." 5 All attempts to extract a meaning from this pas sage as it stands, must be vain. We should certainly read: 'But shall be remitted to your public laws it is evident that the context requires a word of this import: remanded might serve. The comma at remedied is not in the old copy. Remedied to, as Steevens ob fore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits; and buys flattery, but not friendship. In this tragedy are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify or explain with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my endeavours shall be much applauded. JOHNSON. serves, is nonsense. Johnson's explanation will then serve, Not a soldier shall quit his station, or commit any violence, but he shall answer it regularly to the law." 6 This epitaph is formed out of two distinct epitaphs in North's Plutarch. The first couplet is there said to have been composed by Timon himself; the second by the poet Callimachus. The epithet caitiffs was probably suggested by another epitaph, to be found in Kendal's Flowers of Epigrammes, 1577, and in the Palace of Pleasure, vol. i. Nov. 28. 7 So in Drayton's Miracles of Moses: But he from rocks that fountains can command, Cannot yet stay the fountains of his brain. 8 Stop. 9 Physician. CORIOLANUS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. IN this play the narration of Plutarch, in the Life of Coriolanus, is very exactly followed; and it has been observed that the poet shows consummate skill in knowing how to seize the true poetical point of view of the historical circumstances, without changing them in the least degree. His noble Roman is indeed worthy of the name, and his mob such as a Roman mob doubtless were; such as every great city has possessed from the time of the polished Athenians to that of modern Paris, where such scenes have been exhibited by a people collectively considered the politest on earth, as shows that 'the many-headed multitude' have the same turbulent spirit, when there is an exciting cause, in all ages. Shakspeare has extracted amusement from this popular humour, and with the aid of the pleasant satirical vein of Menenius has relieved the serious part of the play with some mirthful scenes, in which it is certain the people's folly is not spared. The character of Coriolanus, as drawn by Plutarch, was happily suited to the drama, and in the hands of A noble servant to them; but he could not Even with the same austerity and garb He hated flattery; and his sovereign contempt for the people arose from having witnessed their pussillani. mity; though he loved the bubble reputation,' and would have grappled with fate for honour, he hated the breath of vulgar applause as 'the reek o' the rotten fens.' He knew that his actions must command the good opinion of men; but his modesty shrunk from their open declaration of it: he could not bear to hear his riolanus that I bear. For I never had other benefit of nothings monstered." 6 Pray you, no more; my mother, Who has a charter to extol her blood, When she does praise me, grieves me." But yet his pride was his greatest characteristic: 'Which out of daily fortune ever taints The happy man.' This it was that made him seek distinction from the ordinary herd of popular heroes; his honour must be won by difficult and daring enterprise, and worn in silence. It was this pride which was his overthrow; and from which the moral of the piece is to be drawn. He had thrown himself with the noble and confiding mag. nanimity of a hero into the hands of an enemy, know-putting my person in the hands of their enemies. ing that the truly brave are ever generous; but two suns could not shine in one hemisphere; Tullus Aufidius found he was darkened by his light, and he exclaims: the true and painful service I have done, and the ex- live The closeness with which Shakspeare has followed his original, Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch, will be observed upon comparison of the folJowing passage, with the parallel scene in the play, describing Coriolanus's flight to Antium, and his reception by Aufidius. It was even twilight when he entered the city of Antium, and many people met him in the streets, but no man knew him. So he went immediately to Tullus Aufidius' house; and when he came thither he got him up straight to the chimney hearth, and sat him down, and spake not a word to any man, his face all muffled over. They of the house spying him, wondered what he should be, and yet they durst not bid him rise. For ill-favouredly muffled and disguised as he was, yet there appeared a certain majesty in his countenance and in his silence; whereupon they went to Tullus, who was at supper, to tell him of the strange disguising of this man. Tullus rose presently from the board, and, coming towards him, asked him what he was, and wherefore he came. Then Martius unmuffled himself, and, after he had paused awhile, making no answer, he said unto himself, If thou knowest me not yet, Tullus, and seeing me, dost not perhaps believe me to be the man I am indeed, I must of necessity discover myself to be that I am. I am Caius Martius, who hath done to thyself particu- death of Coriolanus, A. U. C. 266. larly, and to all the Volces generally, great hurt and Malone conjectures it to have been written in the mischief, which I cannot deny for my surname of Co-year 1610. In the scene of the meeting of Coriolanus with his wife and mother, when they come to supplicate him to spare Rome, Shakspeare has adhered very closely to his original. He felt that it was sufficient to give it merely a dramatic form. The speech of Volumnia, as we have observed in a note, is almost in the very words of the old translator of Plutarch. The time comprehended in the play is about four years; commencing with the secession to the Mons Sacer, in the year of Rome 262, and ending with the SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter a Company of mutinous Citizens, with Staves, Clubs, and other Weapons. 1. Citizen. BEFORE we proceed any further, hear me speak. Cit. Speak, speak. [Several speaking at once. 1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die, than to famish? Cit. Resolved, resolved. 1 Cit. First you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. Cit. We know't, we know't. Two Volcian Guards. VOLUMNIA, Mother to Coriolanus. Roman and Volcian Senators, Patricians, Ædiles, SCENE-partly in Rome; and partly in the Territories of the Volcians and Antiates. Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. 1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good: What authority surfeits on, would relieve us; If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance: our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become 1. Good, in a commercial sense. As in Eastward Hoe: 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at Agair in the Merchant of Venice: our own price. Is't a verdict known good men, well monied rakes:1 for the gods know, I speak this in hunger usury, to support usurers: repeal daily any whole for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country? 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc'd men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 1 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves? 1 Čit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, Thither where more attends you; and you slander 1 Cit. Care for us! -True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for 1 It should be remembered that 'as lean as a rake' is an old proverbial expression. There is, as Warburton observes, a miserable joke intended:- Let us now revenge this with forks, before we become rakes; a pike, or pike-fork, being the ancient term for a pitchfork. The origin of the proverb is doubtless as lean as rache or ræcc, (pronounced rake,) and signifying a greyhound. 2 Thus in Othello : a some act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restram the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's' all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious, 1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time, when all the body's members Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly ? 1 Cit. 7 Your belly's answer: What? Men. The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye, Men. 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!-what then? Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, 1 Cit. Well, what then? The former agents, if they did complain, Men. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little,) 1 Cit. You are long about it. Men. Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate, True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he, Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain; ful version of the text. "Though some of you have And so the belly, all this notwithstanding, laughed 71. e. exactly. I have made my way through more impediments at their folly and sayed, &c.-North's Plutarch. 3 The old copies have "scale't a little more;" for which Theobald judiciously proposed stale. To this Warburton objects petulantly enough, it must be confessed, because to scale signifies to weigh; so indeed it does, and many other things; none of which, however, bear any relation to the text. Steevens too prefers scale, which he proves from a variety of authorities to mean 'scatter, disperse, spread: to make any of them, how ever, suit his purpose, he is obliged to give an unfaith The heart was anciently esteemed the seat of the understanding. See the next note. There has been strange confusion in the appropriation of some parts of this dialogue in all editions, even to the last by Mr. Boswell. Not to encumber the page, I must request the reader to compare this with the former editions, and have no doubt he will approve the transposition of names which has been here made. 9 Shakspeare uses seat for throne. 'I send it (says 1 See what I do deliver out to each; Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flower of all, And leave me but the bran. What say you to't? 1 Cit. It was an answer: How apply you this? Men. The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members: For examine Their counsels, and their cares; digest things rightly, Touching the weal of the common; you shall find, No public benefit which you receive, But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost: Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. Mar. Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, We have ever your good word. Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods Corn for the rich men only:-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being answer'd, And a petition granted them, a strange one (To break the heart of generosity, And make bold power look pale,) they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o the moor, What is granted them? Shouting their emulation. flatter Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts you, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him, And curse that justice did it. greatness, Who deserves Deserves your hate: and your affections are And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? With every minute you do change a mind; Would feed on one another?-What's their seeking? the belly) through the blood, even to the royal residence, the heart, in which the kingly-crowned understanding sits enthroned. The poet, besides the relations in Plutarch, had seen a similar fable in Camden's Remaines; Camden copied it from John of Salisbury, De Nugis Curialium, b. vi. c. 24. Mr. Douce, in a very curious note, has shown the high antiquity of this apologue, which is to be found in several ancient collee. tions of Æsopian Fables: there may be, therefore, as much reason for supposing it the invention of Æsop, as there is for making him the parent of many others. 1 Cranks are windings; the meandering duets of the human body. 2 Rascal and in blood are terms of the forest, both here used equivocally. The meaning seems to be, * thou worthless scoundrel, though thou art in the worst plight for running of all this herd of plebeians, like a deer not in blood, thou takest the lead in this tumult in order to obtain some private advantage to thyself. Worst in blood' has a secondary meaning of lowest in condition. The modern editions have erroneously a comma at blood, which obscures the sense. Men. of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus, Mar. Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath! The rabble should have first unroof'd the city, Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes For insurrection's arguing.11 Men. This is strange. Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments! Mess. Where's Caius Marcius? Here: What's the matter? Mess. The news is, sir, the Volces are in arms. Mar. I am glad on't; then we shall have means 3 Bale is evil or mischief, harm or injury. The word is pure Saxon, and was becoming obsolete in Shak speare's time. 4 Coriolanus does not use these two sentences consequentially; but first reproaches them with unsteadiness, then with their other occasional vices. 5 'Your virtue is to speak well of him whom his own offences have subjected to justice; and to rail at those laws by which he whom you praise was punished." 6 i. e. pity, compassion. 7 Quarry or querre signified slaughtered game of any kind, which was so denominated from being deposited in a square enclosed space in royal hunting. 8 Pick, peck, or picke, i. e. pitch; still in provinciat use. The fact is, that, in ancient language, to pick was used for to cast, throw, or hurl; to pitch was to set or fix any thing in a particular spot, 9 Generosity, in the sense of its Latin original, for nobleness, high birth. Thus in Measure for Measure :'The generous and gravest citizens.' 10 Emulution is factious contention. 11 For insurgents to debate upon You have fought together. Mar. Were half to half the world by the ears, and he Upon my party, I'd revolt to make Only my wars with him: he is a lion 1 Sen. Let's hence, and hear Then, worthy Marcius, How the despatch is made: and in what fashion,, Attend upon Cominius to these wars. Com. It is your former promise. Mar. Sir, it is; And I am constant.1-Titus Lartius, thou What, art thou stiff? stand'st out? No, Caius Marcius: Men. 1 Sen. Your company to the Capitol; where, I know, Our greatest friends attend us. Tit. Lead you on: Follow, Cominius; we must follow you;. Right worthy you priority.2 Com. Mar. Noble Lartius! 1 Sen. Hence! To your homes, be gone. [To the Citizens. Nay, let them follow: The Volces have much corn; take these rats thither, To gnaw their garners:-Worshipful mutineers, Your valour puts well forth: pray, follow. [Exeunt Senators, COM. MAR. TIT. and MENEN. Citizens steal away. Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius? Bru. He has no equal. Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the Is it not yours? What ever hath been thought on in this state, That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Had circumvention! 'Tis not four days gone, Since I heard thence; these are the words: I think, I have the letter here; yes, here it is: [Reads, They have prest1 a power, but it is not known Whether for east or west: The dearth is great; The people mutinous : and it is rumour'd, Cominius, Marcius, your old enemy, (Who is of Rome worse hated than of you,) And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman, These three lead on this preparation Whither 'tis bent: most likely, 'tis for you: Consider of it. Our army's in the field: We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready To answer us. 1 Sen. Auf. ; Nor did you think it folly, To keep your great pretences veil'd, till when They needs must show themselves; which in the hatching, It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the discovery, We shall be shorten'd in our aim; which was, To take in11 many towns, ere, almost, Rome Should know we were afoot, 2 Sen. Noble Aufidius, Take your commission; hie you to your bands: If they set down before us, for the remove12 They have not prepar'd for us. Auf. O, doubt not that; I speak from certainties. Nay, more. 1 i. e. immoveable in my resolution. So in Julius - I have not promoted and preferred you to condign 'But I am constant as the northern star." Cæsar : 2 You being right worthy of precedence. 3 The old copy has Marcius. preferments according to your demerits. S Perhaps the word singularity implies a sarcasm on Coriolanus, and the speaker means to say after what fashion beside that in which his own singularity of dis 4 That is, You have in this mutiny shown fair blos- position invests him, he goes into the field. So in soms of valour. So in King Henry VIII. : |